


Where the Streets Have No Name

by Hecate



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Ficlet, Grief/Mourning, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:35:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22974130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hecate/pseuds/Hecate
Summary: She's alive. Buffy isn't. He can't forgive that.
Relationships: Rupert Giles/Faith Lehane
Kudos: 7





	Where the Streets Have No Name

It's raining when he finds her. It fits.

She's sitting on a bench, an empty park stretching away in front of her, muddy greens and browns. He tries to imagine the place on a summer's days, playing children and mothers watching them. He fails.

He sits down at her side, wordless. There's nothing to say, there was never much to say between the two of them, and it's not going to change now. He doubts that it will ever change.

He thinks back to the funeral, only days ago, the way Faith stood away from the group. Still the outsider, even after years have passed. He thinks he should feel sorry. But he doesn't.

She's alive. Buffy isn't. He can't forgive that, even if it wasn't her fault. He can't forgive that.

When she reaches out, her hand wet and cold on his, he shudders with grief and anger. But he doesn't push her away, doesn't stop her when she swings around, her weight sudden on his lap.

Her kiss is hard, her teeth sharp against his lips, and he tastes his own grief on her tongue. Tastes blood only seconds later, his own blood in her mouth. He pushes against it all, his hands on her hips, her clothes wet beneath his touch. When they break apart, rain is running down her face. It's salty against his lips.

She pushes off him, a broken movement, a hand wrapped around his wrist. "Come on," she says, two words against the sound of the rain. He follows when she pulls at his arm, a marionette to her need.

They leave the park and walk the streets, wet gray stretching out in front of them. It seems to go on forever.


End file.
